The Government is establishing a pilot scheme for reimbursing apartment owners who fix Celtic Tiger era defective properties at their own expense.
Two years ago the total cost for repairing the homes was estimated at €1.5 billion to €2.5 billion.
The total number of properties affected is up to 100,000, according to the working group established by the Government.
It found fire safety, structural safety and water ingress issue was likely to affect 50% to 80% of apartments and duplexes built between 1991 and 2013.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has announced he received Cabinet approval to establish a pilot retrospective scheme.
In January last year, the Government agreed to establish a remediation scheme for apartments and duplexes with defects.
The pilot scheme will be developed from a representative sample of multi-unit developments to design a process to pay for work already completed.
The working group found work may have been finished on 12% of properties and 34% may have building under way.
The pilot scheme will ensure the building work is carried out to certain standards.
“Our approach must be grounded in what works best for those affected, and for the taxpayer,” Mr O’Brien said of the scheme.
The Construction Defects Alliance said the scheme would provide the foundations for the process of reimbursing thousands of “hard-pressed apartment and duplex owners who have paid for or are paying for the remediation of fire safety and other defects.”
Its spokesman Pat Montague said: “The estimated costs of around €25,000 per unit have largely been borne by the owners of these units even though they were not in any way responsible for the defects in question.”
He added: “Despite considerable opposition from officials in a number of departments, the Government – rightly in the Alliance’s view – decided in principle in January 2023 that owners who have paid for defects remediation should be reimbursed.
“This was only right and proper given that the State was partly responsible for the defects as they arose due to the ineffectual system of enforcement of the Building Regulations that applied during the Celtic Tiger era,” he said.
It is expected the State will have pay for the vast bulk of repairs.
Minister O’Brien said he had not closed the door on taking any legal actions against developers.
But he added: “The statute of limitations has run out many instances.”
He said there were also cases “where companies have folded, set back up again and are building again.”
He said the industry had paid into the pyrite defects scheme and the construction levy in the past.
Separately, he said there would be discussion at a meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow about housing targets, but declined to say if any decision would be made.
Article Source – New scheme to reimburse costs to fix Celtic Tiger era defective apartments – RTE
